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Santa Susana, California

Santa Susana is a former railroad town located mostly within the City of Simi Valley and partly in the neighboring Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth. A small portion of the community, outside the Simi Valley city limits to the south of the Ventura County Metrolink rail line, is an unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP).[3] The community is in the eastern part of the Simi Valley and on the western part of Chatsworth, Los Angeles, surrounding the Santa Susana Mountains. With 87.2% identifying as being Caucasian in the 2010 U.S. Census, the Santa Susana CDP has the fifth highest percentage of white residents in Los Angeles County.[4]

The town by the Santa Susana Mountains in the Simi Valley was founded in 1903, shortly after the Southern Pacific Company built the Santa Susana Depot.[5][6][7] It is also spelled Santa Susanna, while it is currently more commonly referred to as the Santa Susana Knolls, which is the officially designated name,[8] or the Simi Knolls.[9] The name of Santa Susana is now more generally applied to a larger area at the very east end of the Simi Valley (often called east of East Simi Valley) in easternmost Ventura County, which was the name of the early settlement located at Tapo Street and East Los Angeles Avenue that is now within the city limits.[10] The historic Santa Susana Depot was located there before being moved farther east along the coast route railroad and made into a museum. The Simi Valley train station opened in 1993 about midway between the historic site and the museum location next to Santa Susana Knolls. The 2010 United States census reported the Santa Susana CDP's population as 1,037. It is a sparsely populated rural area with rustic housing and no set-houses, in a hilly and relatively forested part of the valley.[11]

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a Roman Catholic saint that was martyred and beheaded in Rome in the 3rd century. The name has since then been applied to numerous locations, including a town in the Catalonia region of Spain, as well as the transverse mountain range of Santa Susana in Southern California, which the town is named after. The Santa Susana Knolls of Simi Valley have historically also been written Susanna with double N's.[5] Former names designed to the area have been Green Haven and Mortimer Park.[8]

In 1887, the Simi Valley Land and Water Company first surveyed the area to sell parcels as ranches.[28] With the Santa Susana Depot establishment by the Southern Pacific Company in 1903 as its cornerstone, the town of Santa Susana a few miles east of Simi Valley in the Simi Valley was founded.[29][30] Before this train station, all residents of the Simi Valley had to travel to San Fernando for the closest railroad station.[31] The first businesses surrounding the new train station was also vital for the town’s establishment, and the discovery of oil on El Rancho Tapo in 1910 brought a population boom to the little town. A general merchandise store on the opposite side of Los Angeles Avenue from the railroad station was the first store established in town, established by Horace Crinklaw and his wife in 1909. In 1914, the town was home to eight buildings: Four owned by the Crinklaw family, a schoolhouse, the Santa Susana Depot, the Southern Pacific Warehouse and a blacksmith shop. Oil production was started by the Scarab Oil Company in 1910 and opened with a production of 300 barrels of oil per day.[32] The little town soon became well known as a filming location for Western movies with its rural and rugged surroundings with plentiful sand rock formations; Western films were filmed here as early as in 1920 on the main street of Santa Susana. By 1918, there were 101 registered voters in Santa Susana.[33]

By a 2-1 margin in 1969, voters decided to be incorporated in the City of Simi Valley. On October 10, 1969, the majority of Santa Susana went from being an unincorporated town in the Simi Valley to a part of the city of Simi Valley, which now comprised most of the eponymous valley.[30]

The remaining unincorporated part of Santa Susana is currently mostly known as the Susana Knolls and occupies the hilly, rustic, and rural areas southeast of eastern Simi Valley proper. This area includes the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a government facility previously used for research and design of rocket engines and nuclear reactors.

The CDP is nestled up against the northern slope of the Simi Hills and surrounds the Santa Susana Mountains at an average elevation of 1,165 feet (355 m).[2] It is a hilly and mountainous area, with trees and sand rock formations separating custom-designed homes. It is situated in the easternmost part of the Simi Valley[44][45] and Ventura County, as well as the immediate surrounding areas of the Santa Susana Mountains in Chatsworth, Los Angeles. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP covers an area of 1.1 square miles (2.9 km2), all land. It is an unincorporated area,[46][47] sometimes referred to as a neighborhood,[48] community, village or settlement. The northern border of the CDP follows the Metrolink Ventura County line, across which is the city of Simi Valley. The CDP extends roughly from Rainey Road in the west to Box Canyon Road in the east, and extends south to the limits of development on the lower slopes of the Simi Hills.[3]

The Census reported that 1,031 people (99.4% of the population) lived in households, 0 (0%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 6 (0.6%) were institutionalized.

There were 405 households, out of which 111 (27.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 207 (51.1%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 35 (8.6%) had a female householder with no husband present, 29 (7.2%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 30 (7.4%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 8 (2.0%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 88 households (21.7%) were made up of individuals and 14 (3.5%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55. There were 271 families (66.9% of all households); the average family size was 2.93.

The population was spread out with 186 people (17.9%) under the age of 18, 87 people (8.4%) aged 18 to 24, 252 people (24.3%) aged 25 to 44, 418 people (40.3%) aged 45 to 64, and 94 people (9.1%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44.4 years. For every 100 females there were 105.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 107.1 males.

There were 439 housing units at an average density of 394.4 per square mile (152.3/km2), of which 307 (75.8%) were owner-occupied, and 98 (24.2%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.8%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.8%. 804 people (77.5% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 227 people (21.9%) lived in rental housing units.